Mind's Eye Re: PEGIDA

Here in the states, protesting has become a for hire proposition. The same people swoop in and employ the same tactics for every issue, even if the original issue is grass roots. The pundits call it issue blending, and a protest that might begin as civil rights or against big banks becomes about every issue, thus obscuring any issue.  Here in the D the occupy movement suffered the same fate, losing focus and giving its organization up to the protest for hire gang, and so, losing its following. I see my share of this "democracy in action" as it usually happens on the street outside my office and sometimes erupts into the building until security regains order. The bigger the protest, the more likely the same old faces appear, making me wonder about the very nature of protest. Maybe it is a sort of rage bubbled over from fascist oppression, a natural, mechanical and all too human response. But it feels like something deeper on the collective level goes on. I do think the civil rights movement of the 60s and the Vietnam war protests had an effect and changed the world.  Haven't seen anything here since that made as much sense, but then, there wasn't the issue blending going on.

On Tuesday, December 23, 2014 5:27:33 AM UTC-5, archytas wrote:

To be honest Gabby, I feel lost, though not on big brother assumptions.  I can understand and take part in Occupy - merely surprised here that we aren't taking the streets en masse.  I could protest kids staying at home 'forever', not having decent earnings, homes and so on -  but can hardly see EDL, UKIP and various similar across the EU as protests I can join.  The same is true for me on various black protests basing themselves around police shootings.  I don't see the latter as right or excusable (considerable incompetence is usually involved), I do see the discrimination generally, but the focus into race seems wrong, to include a romanticist notion of those shot and a lot of false positive and negative notions on what we can expect from police officers - though I think the wider justice system is shot through with injustice.  I know what big brother can do when unleashed - most recently here in Northern Ireland.  Yet there remain important questions about 'violence from the other side'.  I protested with a million others against the Iraq War, though we had as little effect as the same number of Germans who turned out in Berlin before WW1.  We seem as far from democracy as ever and unable to find protest against what matters to me, and a lot of what is happening scares me as opening the door to fascism whether black or white - the bent promises of great leaders.

You'll have to say what you mean on big brother assumptions.  I've seen the kind of files that are kept and what various agencies do when complained about from petty town halls to those who can cover up through Public Inquiries.  This has gone on since Byzantine days.  My assumption is it is dreadful and operated by people I wouldn't trust to issue dog licences. 

On Tuesday, 23 December 2014 08:13:09 UTC, Gabby wrote:

Okay, I get what you are saying. Now, what exactly are your questions? I still need to say something on your big brother assumptions, so it would be helpful if you could specify your fields of interest in the meantime here. Thank you.

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